Kite Flying

Before the advent of heavier than air flight, kites were seen as one of the best hope for conquering the air. This article about kite flying is taken from the Century Cyclopedia and was first published circa 1889. It is an interesting look at how much our technology and scientific knowledge has changed, and how our world might have gone down a different path if the Wright Brothers had not succeeded at Kitty Hawk.

A Man Lifting Kite - Do Not Try This Yourself

Progress of Kite Flying

Kite-flying : For ages kite-flying has been a sport as well as a tool for scientific and military purposes.

Numerous attempts have been made to use the kite for more serious purposes than sport. William Elliot Griffis relates that during the Japanese feudal system, prior to the seventeenth century, “ sometimes huge kites able to sustain a man were flown and a bird’s-eye view of the interior of the enemy’s castle thus obtained.” There is a story that a robber was lifted by a kite to a steeple in Japan and attempted to steal some goldfishes surmounting two minarets.

The earliest recorded effort to use the kite for scientific purposes was by Dr. Alexander Wilson and Mr. Thomas Melville in Scotland in 1749. They constructed half a dozen paper kites from 4 to 7 feet in height, and the following account of their flight is found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1825:

“They began with raising the smallest kite, which, being exactly ballasted, soon mounted steadily to its utmost limit carrying up a line, very slender, but of strength enough to' command it. In the meantime the second kite was made ready. Two assistants supported it between them in a sloping direction with its breast to the wind and with its tail laid out evenly upon the ground behind, whilst a third person, holding part of its line tight in his hand, stood at a good distance directly in front. Things being so ordered, the extremity of the line belonging to the kite already in the air was hooked to a loop at the back of the second, which being now let go mounted up very superbly, and in a little time also took up as much line as could be supported with advantage, thereby allowing its companion to soar to an elevation proportionally higher. Upon launching these kites according to the method which had been projected and affording them abundance of proper line, the uppermost one ascended to an amazing height, disappearing at times among, the white summer clouds, whilst all the rest, in a series, formed with it in the air below such a lofty scale, and that too affected by such regular and conspiring motions, as at once changed a boyish pastime into a spectacle which greatly interested every beholder. The pressure of the breeze upon so many surfaces communicating with one another was found too powerful for a single person to withstand when contending with the undermost strong line, and it became, therefore, necessary to keep the mastery over the kites by other means. This species of arial machinery answering so well, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Melville employed it several times during that and the following summer in pursuing those atmospherical experiments for which the kites had been originally intended. To obtain the information they wanted, they contrived that thermometers, properly secured, and having bushy tassels of paper tied to them, should be let fall at stated periods from some of the higher kites, which was accomplished by the gradual singeing of a match-line.”

No results were published by these experimenters, and it is probable that, for lack of self-recording instruments, none were obtained.

Three years later, without a knowledge of the preceding experiments, and preceding their publication, Benjamin Franklin made known the use of the kite for certain scientific researches. With the object of proving the identity of the electricity of the thunder-cloud and that of the Leyden jar, as ordinarily obtained by friction in the laboratory, Franklin constructed a kite of two strips of cedar crossing at right angles, over which he stretched a silk handkerchief tied at the four corners. A sharp-pointed wire extended a foot from the top of the upright stick of the kite, a silk ribbon was tied to the end of the string which held the kite, and a key suspended at the juncture of the wire and the string. The kite was raised by Franklin near Philadelphia, during a thunder-storm in June, 1752, and almost immediately he had the satisfaction of experiencing a spark on applying his knuckle to the key; and when the string had become wet by the passing shower the electricity became abundant. A Leyden jar was charged at the key, and by the electricity thus obtained spirits of wine was inflamed, and the customary experiments performed as ordinarily with frictional electricity. This important experiment aroused the scientific men in Europe to a consideration of the question. Franklin was highly honored by scientific bodies, and the Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal in 1753. Immediately following Franklin were numerous experiments along the same line in Europe. Among those who experimented or discussed the experiments between 1753 and 1856 may be mentioned Mazeas, Richman, De Romas, Lining, Van Muschenbroek, and Cavallo. Cavallo sent out 1,500 feet or more of line with kites in tandem. and succeeded in obtaining sparks from the line under a clear sky.

The death by lightning of Prof. Richman while engaged in experiments on atmospheric electricity, on Aug. 6, 1758, tended for a while to discourage further experiments along this line.

Method of Flying Kites in Tandem

In 1835-36 several gentlemen formed a society with the name of “The Franklin Kite Club,” for the purpose of making electrical experiments. For a considerable time they met once a week at the City Hospital grounds, in Philadelphia, and flew their kites. These were generally square in shape, made of muslin or silk, stretched over a frame-work of cane reeds, varying in size from 6 feet upward, some being 20 feet square. For flying the kites annealed copper wire was used, wound upon a heavy reel 2 or 3 feet in diameter, insulated by being placed on glass supports. When one kite was up, sometimes a number of others would be sent up on the same line. The reel being inside the fence, the wire from the kite crossed over the road. On one occasion, as a cartman passed, gazing at the. kites, he stopped directly under the wire and was told to catch hold of it and see how hard itpulled. In order to reach it he stood up on his cart, putting one foot on his horse’s back. When he touched the wire an electric shock went through him, as also the horse, causing the latter to jump and the man to turn a somersault, much to the amusement of the lookers-on.

In a book styled The History of the Charvolant, or Kite Carriage, published about 1844, Mr. George Pocock, of Bristol, England, gives the following account of some kites made for lifting persons: “ While on this subject we must not omit to observe that the first person who soared aloft in the air by this invention was a lady, whose courage would not be denied this test of its strength. An armchair was brought on the ground, then, lowering the cordage of the kite by slackening the lower brace, the chair was firmly lashed to the main line, and the lady took her seat. The main-brace being hauled taut, the huge buoyant sail rose aloft with its fair burden, continuing to ascend to the height of 100 yards. On descending, she expressed herself much pleased with the easy motion of the kite, and the delightful prospect she had enjoyed. Soon after this another experiment of a similar nature took place, when the inventor’s son successfully carried out a design not less safe than bold, that of scaling, by this powerful aerial machine, the brow of a cliff 200 feet in perpendicular height. Here, after safely landing, he again took his seat in a chair expressly prepared for the purpose, and, detaching the swivel-line, which kept it at its elevation, glided gently down the cordage to the hand of the director. The buoyant sail employed on this occasion was 30 feet in height, with a proportionate spread of canvas. The rise of the machine was most majestic, and nothing could surpass the steadiness with which it was manoeuvred. . . . Subsequently to this an experiment of a very bold and novel character was made upon an extensive down, where a wagon with a considerable load was drawn along, while this huge machine, at the same time, carried an observer aloft in the romance of flying.”

It is related in the Boys' Own Paper (vol. iii., p. 57) that kites were used in 1827 for drawing carriages on common roads, and a journey was made from Bristol to London in a vehicle drawn by their aid at a rate of 25 miles per hour [?], the kites being steered by strings attached to their wings.

According to the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, Sept., 1847, Mr. W. R. Birt, on Aug. 14, 1847, took some kites to the Kew Observatory, for the purpose of endeavoring to ascertain how far it might be practicable to measure, the force of the wind at various elevations by their means, and in the manipulations of his experiments was assisted by Sir Francis Ronalds. After several trials, in which the great variability of the wind seemed to render the kite unfitted for meteorological work, three cords were attached, in accordance with Mr. Ronalds’s suggestion, to an excellent hexagonal kite of Mr. Birt’s construction, one in the usual manner and one on each side. The kite was then raised as usual, and the two lateral cords were hauled downward by persons standing at the apices of a large equilateral triangle. The kite became very steady, and it appeared to him probable that “ a very large kite' or kites might be employed in this kind of manner often and very cheaply, as a substitute for a captive balloon in meteorological inquiries, or even (on a very extensive scale) for other requirements in military science, etc. An anemometer, a thermometer, an hygrometer, etc., might be hauled up and lowered at pleasure.” Such an arrangement, however, would be useful only for very small heights.